Foodie Friday: Reign Seafood
SALISBURY, Md. – Get your bibs ready, because it’s time to dig into a classic seafood boil on this edition of Foodie Friday. We’re checking out Reign Seafood in Salisbury, which isn’t just serious about stuff that comes from the ocean, but also has a mean recipe for wings.
Seafood Two Ways
Owner Jack Chen schools us on seafood two ways during this visit.
“One is called a scallop combo. It’s a half pound of scallops, and a half pound of shrimp in garlic butter sauce,” said Chen. “The other one we’re going to make is called Reign Combo #1. It’s a half pound of shrimp, a half pound of mussels, and a half pound of clams, and snow crab legs in Shakin’ Sauce.”
Dressed Up Ocean Dwellers
Let’s start with Reign Combo #1. The sheer levels of flavor in this dish will have you shakin’ in your bibs. Maybe that’s where their signature sauce gets its namesake from.
“It’s made from Old Bay, Cajun, lemon pepper, and garlic,” said Chen.
The ocean dwellers are dressed up with corn and potatoes, fresh parsley, and lemon.
“When I broke that [crab leg] open, this one long piece of meat really easily slid out,” said Foodie Host Hannah Cechini. “When it comes to crustaceans, usually you can tell that the meat’s been overcooked if it ‘s harder to get out of the shell. But, the fact that that slid right out like that tells me that this has been really well taken care of on the cooking end of things.”
The ingredients are rich on their own. “But then, they take on all that garlicky-ness and buttery-ness, and bring it to this level of really intense flavor,” Hannah said.
So Good You’ll be Shakin’
The Shakin’ Sauce is also the perfect compliment to reign’s chicken wings.
“I really love the Shakin’ Sauce. It’s really garlicky and buttery. The wings are very tender, they’re juicy; just perfectly cooked,” Hannah said. “I love a good, crispy wing.”
“It’s almost got a nice peppery-ness to it,” said Foodie Photog Mike. “There’s really great development on the skin of these wings. Almost a subtle caramelization.”
“Almost nothing isn’t made better by a little bit of butter,”
Let’s try out another type of boil, the Scallop Combo. The coins of flavor are paired with peel-and-eat- shrimp, and completed with made-to-order garlic butter. This combo also gets the fresh parsley and lemon treatment, and it too comes with corn and potatoes, and a trip down memory lane for Mike.
“When I was a young lad, I did not realize you had to peel shrimp. That led to some unfortunate incidents,” Mike said. “Where my mom grew up, they called it a low country boil, and it was whatever they dragged in off the dock that day. Corn was something I always looked forward to.”
But leave it to Mike to sum it up for us, with a sentiment I think most of us can agree with. “Almost nothing isn’t made better by a little bit of butter,” he said.
Reign Seafood
Reign Seafood is located at 331 Civic Avenue, Salisbury, Md. You can call them at 410-572-4763. If you go to check it out, tell the team that you saw them on Foodie Friday.
